2006 National Award for Outstanding Response to and Prevention of Sexual Violence

Congresswoman Hart is a champion of victim rights and services. During her tenure as a Pennsylvania State Senator, she was a prime sponsor of legislation to create the Office of the Victim Advocate and she supported the re-codification of sexual assault statutes in Pennsylvania. After being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Hart worked tirelessly to assure funding for sexual assault programs, strengthen laws concerning child pornography and abduction, protect unborn victims of violence, and promote a safer society.

Rep. Hart served as a primary sponsor of the Violence Against Women Act, a vital source of funds supporting efforts to end violence against women, which the President signed in January 2006. Additionally, as one of the first to advocate for the protection of Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funds, which serve as a major funding source for victim services throughout the nation, Rep. Hart has consistently support VOCA. Rep. Hart was instrumental in ensuring that the Anti-Spam Law required notification of sexually explicit material in unsolicited emails. She also introduced Laci and Conner’s Law which now makes it a crime to harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman.

The Teen Theatre program, a project of Our Family Services in Tuscon, AZ, presents issue-based theater to provide information to teens and other community members about rape and sexual assault. Teen Theatre empowers young people to educate other teens about relationship violence. Performances help teens recognize date rape in its many forms and strive to dispel myths about rape. Each performance encourages audiences to speak out against relationship violence and provides resources and contact information for those who need help. Committed to educating their peers and raising awareness of sexual violence, these teens work well as a tem in their effort to end sexual violence.

The youth participating in Teen Theatre are a diverse group of teen volunteers united by a common purpose – they all believe in and have a passion for date rape prevention. The members of Teen Theatre are Elias Teran, Jasmine Cavanaugh, Samantha Turner, Matt Brown, Arron Bessett, Nnykol Schieck, and Matt Beaudry.

Aishah Shahidah Simmons is an award-winning African-American, feminist, lesbian, independent documentary filmmaker, television and radio producer, and writer, lecturer, and activist based in Philadelphia, PA. She is the founder and president of AfroLez ® Productions, LLC, a multimedia arts company committed to using the moving image, the written and spoken word to address those issues which have a negative impact on marginalized and disenfranchised people.

The producer of NO! The Rape Documentary, Ms. Simmons has spent more than 10 years making the documentary a reality. Through testimonies from Black women survivors, commentaries from acclaimed African-American women scholars and community leaders, impacting archival footage, spirited music, dance, and performance poetry, NO! unveils the reality of rape, other forms of sexual violence, and healing in African-American communities. An incest and a rape survivor, her previously completed internationally acclaimed shorts Silence…Broken and In My Father’s House explore the issues of race, gender, homophobia, rape and misogyny.
Ms. Simmons is the author of several articles published in anthologies and journals in the United States and in Europe. She appears frequently at the screening of here films and lectures on the impact of the intersections of oppressions. She also facilitates workshops on the process of making grassroots social change documentaries across the United States and in several Western and Eastern European countries.

Scott Allen Miller and WRKO have contributed to the responsible reporting of sexual violence and have demonstrated a commitment to violence prevention. Not only have they raised public awareness about sexual violence, but they have publicized available services and resources in their community and provided voice and advocacy for victims through radio broadcast.

Mr. Miller has demonstrated a commitment to raising community awareness of sex offenders, child sexual assault, internet predators, and promoting conversations among family members. Mr. Miller has involved victims/survivors, parents, communities, and many organizations in discussions around sexual violence prevention and has worked collectively with legislators, community leaders and law enforcement. Mr. Miller has demonstrated ongoing commitment to legislative issues, including the Sex Offender Omnibus bill and civil commitment legislation in 2004, and encouraging the introduction of House Docket 4682, which addresses loopholes in Massachusetts’ sex offender laws.

Joanne Archambault is the Executive Director of EVAW International and the President and Training Director of SATI, Inc. SATI provides effective, victim centered, multi-disciplinary training and expert consultation regarding crimes of sexual assault. In January 2003, Ms. Archambault founded EVAW International, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing affordable training for all disciplines with an emphasis on the law enforcement investigation and proper criminal justice responses to sexual assault and domestic violence. EVAW International also supports and conducts research on the sexual assault of women and adolescents.
During her tenure as supervisor at the San Diego Police Department, she co-authored the San Diego County Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) Resource Pamphlet and produced a video on SART, which is used as a training aid for professionals responding to sexual assault. In 1999, while working with the National Center for Women & Policing, Ms. Archambault helped develop the first national sexual assault training curriculum for law enforcement. To enhance this work, in 2001, she produced a series of training videos entitled Sexual Assault Training and Investigations: The Preliminary Response.

Ms. Archambault has served on numerous national advisory boards including the National Institute of Justice, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the STOP Violence Against Women Grants Technical Assistance Project, the American Prosecutor’s Research Institute and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. She has written and co-authored a number of articles and chapters on various subjects relating to the criminal justice response to sexual assault crimes. She lectures extensively to multi-disciplinary audiences on therole of law enforcement in the investigation of sex crimes internationally.

Language

SAAM Happenings

Follow Us

NSVRC Home

This site is supported by Grant/ Cooperative Agreement No. 1UF2CE002359-02 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.